Australia triumphant again as England crumbles

An accidental stumping by stand-in wicketkeeper Matthew Wade helped condemn England to one of many shattering defeats on this tour but Australia's thrilling victory was tempered by a suspected injury to Test tourist Shaun Marsh.

Australia won the last one-day game of the summer by five runs and the series 4-1, defending a modest target of 218 in the Australia Day match at Adelaide Oval. Marsh left the field with physiotherapist Alex Kountouris during the 36th over and did not return.

James Faulkner, who knocked the stuffing out of England's chase with two big wickets during the batting power play, was man of the match and Aaron Finch man of the series for his centuries in Melbourne and Perth.

Australia won with two balls to spare when Shane Watson had tailender James Tredwell caught behind for a duck.

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During the penultimate over, Ravi Bopara, who had taken 44 balls to get to 25, was stumped in dramatic circumstances. Keeping up to the stumps to Clint Mckay, Wade fumbled the ball but issued a muted appeal after it bounced off his gloves onto the stumps. At length, the third umpire judged that Bopara's foot was not grounded when the ball dropped onto the bails.

England needed eight from the last over and it proved beyond the last pair.

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The tourists tumbled from a comfortable position to a perilous one when Faulkner changed the game with two strikes in as many overs. He finished with 2-37 from his 10 overs.

Faulkner, who conjured an improbable victory for Australia with the bat in Brisbane, this time rattled the tourists with the ball.

Shane Watson roars with delight after taking the final wicket, that of James Tredwell, to give Australia a five-run win in the final one-day international in Adelaide on Sunday. Photo: Getty Images

Eoin Morgan came down the wicket and smashed a catch to Shane Watson at mid-off. Two overs later Joe Root attempted an ambitious paddle shot off the Tasmanian left-armer and was caught at short fine-leg for 55. Faulkner, swiftly becoming the heartbeat of the Australian one-day team with his relentless competitiveness with bat and ball, roared in celebration. Bopara very nearly became his third victim in as many overs but a catch was just beyond the reach of Watson, lunging with the flight of the ball at deep mid-on.

The departure of Morgan and Root, who shared a brisk partnership of 64, handed the momentum back to Australia and left England needing almost a run a ball in the last 10 overs.

But Jos Buttler was unable to repeat his Perth heroics, hitting a catch straight to square-leg for 5. And Glenn Maxwell brilliantly ran out Tim Bresnan for 13 with a direct hit from backward point after Bresnan had clubbed Nathan Coulter-Nile for six. It was a risky run, and continued the panicky pattern for England.

Earlier, the Australians were restricted to a medoicre total through tight England bowling and a series of loose on a sluggish Adelaide Oval pitch.

George Bailey raises his bat after reaching his half-century. Photo: Getty Images

George Bailey top-scored with 56 but he wasted a chance to go on when he gave a catch to mid-on in the 41st over.

Maxwell had been given a rocket by the coach before the game over his reckless shot in Perth, and for much of the allrounder's innings Darren Lehmann's words seemed to have had the desired effect.

Maxwell came in after Shane Watson, Marsh and Michael Clarke had all perished to loose shots.

Joining the experienced Bailey at 4-64, the Victorian did as his coach had asked and pulled his head in. He took 30 balls to hit a boundary, but when he was set flashed outside his off-stump at a ball from Ben Stokes and was caught behind for 22 from 35 balls.

A staunch lower-order partnership between Faulkner and Coulter-Nile pushed Australia to 217 but Faulkner received treatment on his knee during his innings of 27 from 27 balls.

The tourists started off with a continuation of the shambolic fielding that has characterised their tour, dropping Aaron Finch twice before Broad knocked over his off stump for seven.

Watson, returning from a three-game rest, was caught behind for a duck and Marsh, looking in decent touch after hitting Chris Jordan for consecutive boundaries through the off side, languidly clipped a catch to mid-wicket for 36.

Clarke, also returning from a rest, wasn't allowed to score freely and tried to relieve the pressure with a heave to the leg-side, but ended up edging Bresnan onto his stumps. Clarke is coming to the end of a huge summer, leading his team's Ashes revival, but he has not passed 50 in either form of the game since his brilliant first-innings century in the Adelaide Test and will be keen to get back to his best for the start of the South Africa Test series.